The soul released Oliver’s neck and convulsed. I didn’t even have time to breathe before Dusty screamed.
“Shut up! Shut up!” Dusty kneeled in the sand with his hands over his ears, yelling over and over at someone—or something. Glowing vines completely encased Matt’s shaking body as if they were electrocuting him.
Worse, the Nightmare Squad didn’t even bite them. Instead, they moved toward Rissa.
A demon with red horns shot out glowing vines, wrapping Rissa up, but she only smiled. She couldn’t feel whatever energy pulsed through the dark bark. But that didn’t matter. In the next second, a demon materialized behind her and clocked her over the head, knocking her out. Enora and Ichi, not too far from Rissa, attacked without hesitation. Enora sang two Nightmares unconscious, and Ichi wielded her water dragon and sword in a beautiful, vicious symphony, eliminating twomore before a different Nightmare sent out a swarm of bugs—too many to stop.
Ichi blasted them with water, but they kept coming. They crawled up their bodies, latched onto any exposed skin, and then Ichi and Enora fell unconscious. They took out Zera and Valarus next, along with any Devil in their path.
After realizing they were fodder to the Nightmares, the Devils fled into the crowd.
“Fuck,” Oliver groaned, clutching his wrist.
“How much power do you have left?”
“None.”
Dammit.
Five Nightmares slowly prowled toward us, and one lone illusioned demon stood behind them. He had black horns, red cracking skin, and large fangs. He gave no indication of who he was. Maybe he was a part of the Nightmare Squad having second thoughts. Maybe he was a Devil wanting to stand his ground. But as he stared at me, I knew.
“So much for remaining incognito,” Oliver grumbled.
Aspen luscelered beside us, giving the other illusioned demons pause.
“Are you okay?” I asked, scanning him. It was hard to distinguish wounds beneath the illusion.
“Fine. You’re not going to win this alone.” His voice contradicted his demonic body.
“So you’re here to what? Lift our spirits?” Oliver asked.
“Help.”
Aspen erected a wall of blue flame, stopping their taunting pursuit.
“That’s not legal!” someone protested from the crowd. Others booed; some cheered.
But the Nightmares…
They didn’t care. They waited patiently on the other side of the wavering firewall, grinning, waiting.
Oliver counted the Nightmares on the ground then the ones still standing. “Aren’t there usually ten of?—”
Aspen cried out. A Nightmare was ripping a chunk of flesh from his shoulder.
“Ishould fucking kill you for what you did to me,” the demon snarled in a feminine voice, raising a dagger toward Aspen’s neck.
My mind emptied. The foreign energy took over. Before I knew it, I had straddled the female demon, my hands squeezing her neck. She slammed her blade into my side. I cried out through clenched teeth. She ripped out the blade, about to stab me again—like I deserved—when the entire arena plunged into darkness.
Shadows pressed against my side, staunching the bleeding. Someone ripped me off her. A metallic hiss cut through the whispers, then a loud, wet thwack. The conniving energy controlling my emotions seethed, pissed that Ronen prevented it from getting its pound of flesh from me.
It dug into my brain and moved through my arm. I unsheathed my blade, about to bring it to my shoulder, when golden eyes lit up in the darkness, and Ronen gripped my wrist, pulling me into him.
“Not while I live and breathe, Hellion.” He ripped the dagger from my hand.
Just gazing into his golden depths was enough to shove the bond back. But he grasped my chin with his tingling fingers and released the block. I felt him. All of him. His utter wrath. Determination. The solace of his essence. He flooded me, leaving no room for the thing to reclaim control and harm me.
It had no place in my head. It couldn’t contend with him. With home.
